Issue No.62 January 1999
Issue No.62 January 1999
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
The new year has seen more improvements to our buildings. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Mr Cattle, our Premises Manager, he has succeeded in squeezing money from the county coffers to pay for replacement of all our 50-year-old exterior doors. We are currently receiving applications to enter our Sixth Form in September - if you know of students looking for Sixth Form places, do encourage them to contact us here. Mobile phones were obviously a very popular Christmas present! We are currently reviewing our policy on these. For students who have difficult journeys they represent an aid to their safety and we would not want to ban them. I am sure you will understand how distracting it can be if they ring in assemblies or lessons. For the time being we are insisting that during the school day they are turned off. If not and they disturb lessons we shall remove them and return them to parents. Ideally we would prefer that they are not brought to school and certainly we cannot accept any responsibility for their safe-keeping. Web Site - My thanks to the Friends and Mr Frank Haslam in particular for designing and setting up a Web Site for the school. As well as school information and links to other association sites, the Friend have their own page. Comments and contacts are welcome. Address is: http://www.therfield.surrey.sch.uk/welcome/index.html Presentation Evening - The High Sheriff of Surrey, Mr Richard Stilgoe, proved a popular and amusing guest of honour at Presentation Evening on January 8th. He himself dubbed it "a jolly evening" and expressed his admiration for all we - and the students - are accomplishing. The students, many of whom were meeting up for the first time since dispersing to their various universities and jobs, found plenty to talk about and it was good to see so many attending to collect their awards and certificates. Cycle Track - Our new cycling policy of compulsory number plates and helmets is now up and running and seems to be working well. Divisional Engineer, Mark Bisson, tells us that work has started on a new £200,000 transport link for cyclists and pedestrians from the railway station through to Randalls Farm Lane which comes out at the top of Dilston Road. This, of course, will greatly help our pupils who either walk or cycle to school from the Fetcham, Bookham and south Leatherhead area. The track will be a shared facility for cyclists and pedestrians - in the same way as the path bordering the Mill Pond - and Mole Valley's Road Safety Officer, Mrs Jane Siegle, will be giving pupils some training in its correct use. The scheme was made possible after Surrey County Council was awarded its first ever Derelict Land Grant from English Partnerships. Railtrack has contributed to the cost and the history of the site will be reflected in the design of the route, with reclaimed railway sleepers being used as supports for the pathway. Charity Cash - The Year 10 Disco held before Christmas raised £151.25 for Cancer Research. Drug Awareness Meeting - Ashtead Rotary Club is organising and sponsoring a meeting on Drug Awareness for Parents of Young People (11-18 years) at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall on Tuesday, 23rd March at 8.00 pm. Full details on the leaflet which is being distributed with this Newsletter. Famine fund-raising - as part of their Geography studies on Development, last year's Year 9 took part in World Vision's 24 Hour Famine exercise. So enthusiastic were they in gaining sponsorship that they raised £695 and have now been congratulated by the charity as one of the top school groups for fund raising. Results Days - A Level results this year will come out on 19th August and GCSE results on 26th August. Seminar for Study Skills - On the first day of half term - Monday, 15th Feb. we will, once again, be offering Year 11 students the opportunity to brush up on old and learn new study skills. A one-day course run by a professional group -'Learning Performance Seminars' at a cost of £15 a student - will have a programme to include memorising techniques, time management, understanding and summarising, association maps and revision techniques. In the evening a free one hour session will be held so that parents too can learn about the best way to prepare for GCSEs! All Year 11 parents should have had a letter about this but if pupil post has failed you, then Mr Wilcock can give you details. Exchange Partners Wanted - So many French and German students would like to take part in an Exchange Visit with us that the Modern Languages Department is asking if there are any last-minute Year 9 and 10 pupils who would like to sign up for this year's Exchanges. Taking part in an Exchange is one of the best ways to boost language skills and often leads to life-long friendships. Miss Buckell (German Exchange) and Ms Perrett (French) would be happy to give details about dates etc. but you will need to act quickly! How about Paris? - There are still a few vacancies on the Year 8 Geography Trip-to Paris in May. This is usually one of the most popular trips in the school calendar and Miss Wooding would be happy to give details. A reminder that the Monday following half-term (22nd) is a Teacher Training Day and pupils are not in school. We return to WEEK 1 on the timetable. Before then on Tues 9th, school will close early to accommodate Academic Tutoring as Year 13 Parents' Evening is on the 10th. Telephone Money - In an emergency, change can be given in the Main Office when pupils need to make a telephone call, but it would be appreciated if pupils could come to school with sufficient small change to meet such needs. Music News - No sooner had the Spring Term started than Therfield's musicians were in action once again. The annual presentation evening gives our most experienced players and singers a chance to perform at a prestigious occasion. The fact that the guest of honour this year was Richard Stilgoe, who is himself an accomplished musician and performer, made it essential for our students to be 'on form'. Erika Hearle gave an accomplished performance of the first movement of the Flute Sonata by Francis Poulenc and the Advanced Singers excelled themselves in a group of madrigals by John Farmer. Richard Stilgoe was particularly impressed by the Therfield Stompers, the 'trad' jazz group who were playing as the guests arrived - so impressed in fact that he has invited the group to play at the High Sheriff of Surrey's Awards for Endeavour in March. The Stompers are making a name for themselves very quickly - the chairman of Mole Valley Council, John Butcher, has asked them to play at his civic reception at Dorking Halls in February and also in March at his grand Charity Concert. We must not, however, lose sight of Therfield's Spring Concert which will take place this year on Wednesday, March 24th. This will include a guest appearance by members of the South East Surrey Area Youth Orchestra as well as our usual mixture of choral and instrumental items. The Choral Concert planned for 26th of February has had, unfortunately, to be cancelled. Busy Time - the February half term sees a party of Sixth Formers, under the guidance of Ms Roberts, setting off to a full programme of visits in the United States, another group of seniors will be skiing at Badgastein in Austria with Mr Hill while Mrs Wingrove leads younger pupils on another skiing trip also to Austria, this time at Achenkirch. Given the very large number of Sixth Formers who are going on these trips, Sixth Form lessons will cease at lunchtime on 12th February. Tips on Driving - A very popular component of our Skills Instruction is the pre-driver course which is run by Mrs Jane Siegle, Mole Valley Road Safety Officer. Here Year 11 pupils, most of whom are bursting to own and drive their first car, learn about the documentation involved, insurance, tips on buying a car and something of the theory test. Other sessions deal with hazards, accidents, drinking and driving and some practical instruction. Cross Country - Yet again our runners proved themselves to be top competitors in important events, often in the most daunting of conditions. At the Girls' District Championships our junior team took first place with Emily Parker coming home first out of 53 runners closely followed by Mary Nelson, Vicky Thatcher, Gemma Adams and Alice McFadden who occupied places 3 - 6. In the Intermediate group, Emma Firth was 1st, with Nicky Bailey (3rd) and Sarah Dear (4th). Emily Nelson came first in the senior girls. All these girls will run for Central Surrey in the county championships. In the Boys sub-mile relays at Oxted our three teams all finished second in their groups. Some excellent individual performances were recorded - Ben Adams (seniors) and Warren Gale (juniors) ran exceptionally fast times. We have just heard that 21 boys have been selected to run for Central Surrey in the county championships - Therfield runners make up two thirds of the whole squad! Hockey coaching - A course for 13-16 year olds is being run at Therfield on Sunday mornings starting on Sunday, 7th February. Champion Coaching are the organisers and it is free to keen youngsters, boys and girls. If the course is to go ahead lots of support is needed so please contact Miss Jefford for the details. Congratulations to Michael Plenty in Year 11 on being selected for the South of England Under 17s ice hockey squad. Michael plays for Guildford Firestars. Badminton - Christopher Langridge (Year 9) continues to sparkle at Badminton. In an international match in Holland he reached the quarter finals in the boys and mixed doubles and won both singles and doubles title in the Sussex U15 championships and all three titles in the equivalent Surrey event. Sponsors wanted - Sixth Former Matthew Dodd will be running in the London Marathon to raise money for 'Childline' and Nadia Dahabiyeh for SeeAbility. Both Matthew and Nadia would be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to sponsor either or both of them. Visiting Artist - Kevin Kember, a successful artist from Australia, spent a day in the Art Department on January 15th. He demonstrated the techniques used in his paintings to classes from Year 8 up to the Sixth Form. The younger classes were entranced by him and his work and many asked for his autograph, while the older classes gained many useful tips for their A Level work. The visit was a great success as it offered fresh ideas and approaches with an appeal right across the age range. New Band - Next Friday (5th) sees the appearance at Therfield of a brand new girl band called 'Hepburn'. They have recently signed a recording deal with Columbia and are putting together a major school tour. They will perform at Therfield from 1.20 - 2.00 pm in aid of the Year Charities and admission will be 30p - tickets available in advance. 'Books for Schools' - Many thanks for all the hundreds of tokens from crisp packets and newspapers sent in already - please keep sending them in, we need many more as it can take as many as 200 tokens to get one book! Also a tremendous number of library books borrowed last term - or even earlier! - have still to be returned. Could parents please check at home and see if there are any overdue books lying around? Lost Property - The vexed question of lost coats, blazers, sports kit, sweaters etc. continues - if property is labelled we can return it. At present, there are six good quality outer coats in the cupboard but we can't keep them forever as storage space is limited. DIARY DATES Looking Ahead - The Friends are holding a Silent Auction on 13th March and for this they need lots of `lots' to bid for. Please support them on the night and let us have any new or good as new items to sell. Pat Hunt (842480) or Liz Reynaud (843777) are the contacts. |